By Greg Piper

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel drove Gawker into bankruptcy by funding an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against the tabloid news site by Terry Bollea, known as former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose sex tape Gawker published.

Gawker's defenders alleged Thiel's involvement was "payback" for having outed him as gay several years before. 

"It's less about revenge and more about specific deterrence," he said in 2016 in his first interview after his identity was revealed. "I saw Gawker pioneer a unique and incredibly damaging way of getting attention by bullying people even when there was no connection with the public interest."

Roughly seven years later, speech-policing watchdogs that aim to starve less-moderated tech platforms of advertising revenue are facing a similar threat from Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, and now Rumble.